help with vit D levels

I think it is pretty difficult to OD on D 3 when you are deficient.  I did 20,000 mg a day for 4 months to get mine from 22 to 61 and my doc says to take 15,000 one day and 20,000 the next and continue alternating until we check again in 4 months. 

Just google side effects of too much D 3 and watch for those if you're worried.

I live in Florida and did sit outside most days for a little while over the last few years.

*Bump* backatcha!  

I am going to call my endocrinologist tomorrow.  I'm getting really light-headed (I suffer daily migraines/nausea/vomiting, that's not unusual for me, I'm disabled due to them), and in looking up side effects of high doses of vitamin d2 or d3 (to treat the deficiency) it can cause higher calcium levels in the blood (I also have primary hyperparathyroidism/high calcium in blood).  So this could all be making me pretty light-headed.  I'm going to ask to be switched from the 50,000ius of D2 to the D3/cholecalciferol if that does not also affect calcium/parathyroid. 

Got all that???   LOL...I try to.   ALL my best to you all, I have learned a lot here.  (I will still defer to my doctors, understandably)        ~juli

Hi DaylillyFan!   I also burn very easily, and am NOT in the sun (I live in Upstate NY--very similar to Ohio weather).  From what I know and have read, any MINIMUM exposure daily to the sun without sunscreen is beneficial (15min. tops I believe).  Have you been tested for your Vitamin D levels lately?  Us NorthEasterners are so prone to vitamin d deficiency.  I took a D3, 1000ius daily for a long time, and came up very deficient (hence the now 50,000ius weekly for 9 more weeks)...but I also hate the sun, so I'm never in it if at all possible.  I do garden, but only in the early a.m. or after sun goes down, lol.   I'm sure there are others with much more expertise here than me that will chime in for ya!   Take care~~~juli

Thank You, Makraz~!   Hope you had a good weekend, girlie.

~juli

Daylily,  Sunscreen blocks the UVB needed for your skin to make D, so unless your sunscreen wears off or you sweat it off you won't make (much) D.  If you don't wear it and have exposed skin you most certainly would make it in your May-Sept sun-time even in Ohio. 

I'm no doc and you should really check with yours on that, however, my husbands three family members who have had skin cancers are instructed to always wear sunscreen and hats and avoid direct sun on their skin.  You can get your vit D from supplements.

I'm getting a little discouraged with these Vitamin D's. I take my 3rd one tomorrow (50,000 IU's). So far, I cannot tell there's a bit of difference in the pain. Especially my feet and hands. When I get up in the mornings, I feel like every bone in my feet is going to crack. uggghhhhh I'm looking for a miracle.....maybe it'll come.

Thank all of you for your information and research. It's priceless!! It really is. I've learned so much from these boards. And I will print these suggestion out for my oncologist to read.

Hugs to all of you!

Patty, honey, no need to pm good brands of sunscreen. We all want to know. I've had skin cancer on my nose on and off. And I need a good brand. I've been using the Neutrogena 100% blocking brand but it is fiiled with crap.

Please post any good sunscreens you know of.

xox A.

Patty + Anon -

I also have dealt with a history of skin cancer. I burn really easily - I  just started using the sunscreen from Mercola and we were kayaking in the HOT Florida sun for a couple of hours last week and I didn't burn.

http://products.mercola.com/summer-survival-kit/

Beth

After asking my surgeon....then my two oncs (medical and radiation) to test my Vitamin D levels and them all saying "no we don't do that"...I finally got my GP to test.  I got the results yesterday and it was 58. She said this is low normal and that I should be taking 1,000 IU of D3 per day.  What she didn't know was I had been taking 1,000 for the past few years and had bumped it up to at least 2,000 (...sometimes 3,000) per day for the past few months. If 58 is low normal, does anybody know what level is optimal?  And, any suggestions as to how much D3 to take daily to get to the good level?  Down the road, I think I'll enlist the services of a naturopath because I'm sure I can pay them to check it more frequently.  Our healthcare system is great where I live but I know it would be unlikely that I could get this checked again until my next annual checkup, especially because it as in the normal range, albeit low normal.

Sherri 

I was told the same thing Coonie, 30-100, but recently I think my doc said 40-100.  Bottom line is, I don't think THEY know!!  I would be thrilled if mine were 58!!  Mine was 19 when I started supplementing.  Good for you, Sugar, and you live in ON????  Way to have a decent D level so far north!

Hmm, so shall I stop taking the D3 supp until after my annual physical on Monday with my PCP so my cholesterol levels are not skewered?

Sugar: It's important to know there are two different units used to measure Vitamin D  - ng/ml and nmol/L. If yours is 58 ng/ml most doctors would describe that as being in the normal range (although there is no agreement on exactly what the normal range is, some labs use 30-100ng/ml as the normal reference range). But is your level is 58 nmol/L, then that would indeed be on the low side.

It is useless to get a cholesterol test if you are on 50,000 IU of D2.  It gives a false high reading of LDL's.  It takes at least a month of D2 to clear enough for a valid cholesterol test.  The lab that does my blood work wouldn't do a cholesterol test when I was on D2.

Sugar--ask your doc to give you a copy of the lab report--it will have the measurement units used and the normal range for those measurements.